Vinn graduated from the biology class of Tallinn 3. Secondary School in 1989. He studied geology at the University of Tartu from 1989 to 1993. Vinn holds an M.Sc.
degree in paleontology and stratigraphy from the University of Tartu in 1995 and a Ph.D. degree in geology from the same university in 2001. He is senior research fellow
in paleontology at the University of Tartu since 2007. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers in international scientific journals.[1][2]

Vinn has described majority of annelid skeletal ultrastructures.
Oriented tube structures are present in many serpulid species and cannot
be explained by the standard carbonate slurry model. Vinn
and his co-authors have hypothesized that oriented structures in serpulid tubes have been
secreted in the same way as in mollusc shells, based on their ultrastructural similarity.
Vinn and his co-authors proposed alternative ways to explain the calcified secretory
granules described by Neff [4] in the lumen of the calcium-secreting glands in
serpulids. They proposed that worm actually produces calcium-saturated mucus in the glands. The mucus
is then deposited on the tube aperture, where crystallization of the structure is
controlled by an organic matrix, as in molluscs.The calcified granules in the glands may only
be an artifact of fixation and formed after the death of the worm.[5]

Vinn has studied evolution of symbiosis in several groups of early invertebrates such as cornulitids, microconchids, bryozoans, brachiopods, crinoids, stromatoporoids, tabulates and rugosans. He has described serpulid faunas of Mesozoic to Recent hydrocarbon seeps.[2] A Late Devonian coral species ?Michelinia vinni is named in honour of his contribution to knowledge of ecology of Palaeozoic bioconstructing organisms.[6] A crinoid species name Hiiumaacrinus vinni recognizes his
significant contributions to the Silurian paleontology of Estonia.[7]